Two-time Formula DRIFT (FD) champion Samuel Hubinette had an amazing debut in his Samuel Hubinette Racing (SHR)/Dodge Motorsports Dodge Challenger, qualifying No. 8 and advancing to the Great Eight round in the season opening event on the Streets of Long Beach, Calif.

Hubinette had just a few hours of testing in his Mopar-powered Dodge Challenger prior to the Long Beach event, making his long-awaited debut with the new car that much more impressive. The “Crazy Swede” knocked off Matt Powers in the Top 32 round and Forrest Wang in the Top 16 before falling to Rhys Millen in the Great Eight. Hubinette is No. 6 in the FD point standings.

“On February 10 we had a stock 2010 Dodge Challenger sitting in the drive way at ES Motorsports,” said Hubinette, who also made his debut as team owner at the event. “With a lot of hard work from Team SHR, Dodge, BFGoodrich , ES Motorsports, Stack Performance, AIT Carbon and others, we all made this happen in a period of two months. Now we know what we need to work on to make the Dodge Challenger even faster to keep up with the smaller and lighter cars out there on the FD field.”

SHR driver Andrew-Comrie Picard made his FD debut in his Mopar-powered Dodge Motorsports Dodge Viper SRT10® at Long Beach but was unable to qualify in the always tough Formula DRIFT field. Hubinette and Picard will take part in drift demonstrations next weekend during the Grand Prix of Long Beach. The duo will see competition next in the FD Round Two event at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Ga. on May 7–8.